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Thursday, 17 December 2015

Abbas Takes Exception to Satirical Depiction of the PA’s Relationship to Israel

It would seem that the Prison Authority of the
West Bank, presided over by the Quisling Abbas, has taken exception to
the cartoons of the ‘virulently anti-Israel’ (according to The Times of Israel)
Baha Yassin.

Clearly his cartoons depicting the relationship of the
PA with Israel, in sexual terms, were too close for comfort.

In this
cartoon, Al-Ali comments on sectarianism. The image shows a man asking
another man: “Are you Muslim or Christian? Sunni or Shiite? Druze or
Alawite?

There was another cartoonist, the great Naji al Ali
who drew a cartoon that was unflattering towards a female friend of Yasir
Arafat. A few weeks later, 22nd
July 1987, Naji al Ali was assassinated on the streets of London.

Cartoon by Bahaa Yassin accuses the West Bank and its security agencies of collaborating with Israel (Bahaa Yassin/courtesy/Palestinian Media Watch)

The
Palestinian public prosecutor in the West Bank recently issued an arrest
warrant for Gaza-based cartoonist Baha Yassin, in response to complaints that
he insulted the Palestinian flag and women in one of his recent pieces.

Although
the arrest warrant was issued on December 1, reports of the move only emerged
Sunday when a copy of the document was given by one of the plaintiffs to
Palestinian media.

Naji al Ali depiction of Menachem Begin with Pyramids for muscles

Known
for his political, often violent caricatures, Yassin sparked public outcry last June when he posted a picture on his Facebook
page depicting the West Bank as a woman dressed in yellow — a color associated
with Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party — engaged in sexual intercourse with a
stereotypical ultra-Orthodox Jewish man, symbolizing Israel.

The
image, which accused the Fatah party of collaborating with the Jewish state,
was considered insulting by many Palestinians across the political spectrum,
who objected to its overt sexual imagery.

Yassin’s
caricatures commonly portray intense violence and openly advocate for the
killing of Israelis. He is known for praising terrorist attacks in his
drawings, such one he posted in November 2014 following a terror attack on worshipers at a Jerusalem
synagogue that left five men dead.

In
the wake of the negative reaction, Yassin took down the caricature and replaced
it with one of a West Bank woman standing proud with a bloodied knife after
having stabbed a Jew and rebuking another lady representing Fatah saying “I
will avenge my children and avenge you, O [Palestinian] Authority of shame!”

Bahaa Yassin’s modified cartoon (Bahaa Yassin Facebook page)

At
the time, Hamas’s interior ministry spokesman, Iyad el-Bozom, panned the first cartoon
on Facebook and said Gaza rulers intended to take legal action against the
artist for “offending our people, their resistance and their struggle.”

Naji al Ali with his famous trade mark character '‘Hanthalah'

In
the end Hamas seems to have not followed through with its threats, but that did
not stop a group of three particularly incensed West Bank residents taking on
the case.

One
of the plaintiffs, Hassan Salim, told Al-Watan news on Sunday that they filed
the initial complaint against Yassin because his drawings “insulted Palestinian
women” and “show contempt for the Palestinian flag.”

The
latter refers to an image posted by Yassin on his Facebook page of a donkey
combined with the Palestinian flag. “The Palestinian flag is a symbol for
freedom for every Palestinian and free man in the world. These drawings belittle
the Palestinian flag and damage its symbolism and sacredness,” Salim said.

An image created by Palestinian cartoonist Bahaa Yassin showing a donkey combined with the Palestinian flag (Facebook)

According
to Salim, the district court in Ramallah held a session last Thursday where
they demanded Yassin’s referral to the Palestinian Public Prosecutor’s office
for trial. According to Salim, Yassin is to be arrested if he enters any area
under Palestinian Authority sovereignty and if he does not do so he is to be
tried in absentia.

The woman represents the first intifada

Luckily
for Yassin, the arrest warrant issued bears little weight as the Ramallah court
does not have jurisdiction in the Hamas controlled Gaza strip where he resides.